Friday 24 December 2010

Lush Designs; the FABULOUS shop

This is what our shop window has been looking like over the festive yuletide season. Gay and cheerful are the new stag/dog/pheasant shades are in seasonal tints of red, gold and white!


See how very DEAR our customers are?
They recognised queen Victoria on this lampshade -

Cute, adorable AND intelligent.


Tuesday 7 December 2010

Tray Tray Bong

"However will I carry all these beverages which I have poured for my many fabulous and important friends who are gathered in my designery lounge area talking about important things in an amusing way in spite of being in need of refreshment? I only have TWO HANDS!!!!"


Fear not! Lush Designs to the rescue!
Wooden trays now available at the Lush Designs Shop at 8 College Approach, Greenwich, London SE10, elegant, sturdy and ideal for breakfast in bed, lunch in the garden, or that game where you have to guess which object has been removed.

Also available soon from http://www.lushlampshades.co.uk

Monday 29 November 2010

Spotty

"Where do you get your ideas from?" People innocently ask - little knowing that they won't then be able to get away for the next hour as we exhaustively explain the minutiae of our many inspirations and very possibly including unasked-for autobiographical details, only drawing breath as we shed a wistful tear, recalling our finest moments.
Who can forget "Pillows With a Pocket" ? The genius of our tubular waste-bins with no bottom?

I digress

Here is a design inspired by the combination of winter coming on, reading Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and having swimming lessons....


The ultimate manifestation of which is this lampshade, which features scenes from the evolution of the mermaid in the primordial swamp, (Available in several charming colourways)
complete with SPOTTY TREES;
and from our new shop at 8 College approach, Greenwich SE10 9HY


Lo! What should appear on our crab apple tree but this evil fungus which spells DEaTH

Possibly a case of life imitating art.

Sunday 21 November 2010

Coming to a lampshade near you...

See the fierce hounds, the alert deer, the fearful pheasants!

This design will be circumnavigating a lampshade and dangling from a flex before the week is out. You mark my words.



Thursday 18 November 2010

SOCIETY, big, high; whatever

Hey! Remember that great BIG SOCIETY? Yes, that one.
Did you fail to get to grips with the CONCEPT?


Did you confuse it with the cheerful yet incisive film of a similar name?


Fear not!
Here's a guy who can biff away the bafflement!

He's Jesse Norman, Conservative MP for Herefordshire and South Herefordshire....

(Not to be confused with the exquisite soprano Jessye Norman)

Still bewildered?

Don't worry Jesse explains it all in his book. In fact I heard him the other day on the radio explaining how it was all grand in the 1860s when we was all looked-arfter by kindly old Chuzzlewits and we didn't have any narsty old welfare state spoilin' everyfink.


Thursday 4 November 2010

In the shop today:




While we're in the shop, if its quiet we take the opportunity to get some drawing done.

Today I drew some trees which will form part of the Pennine landscape in one of our new designs.

Whilst I toiled creatively the phone engineer was putting the phone line in (you have to wait at least three weeks to get this done now BT Openreach have decided that two engineers is probably enough to cover Greater London and the Midlands)

Our engineer seemed like a nice fellow, was very efficient and knew most of the words to Folsom Prison Blues.
He looked over my shoulder and said "Are you doodling?"



Luckily he didn't spot this poorly executed deer (with elk ghost next to it) which I hastily concealed with the order book lest he make a disparaging comment;
"It has the embarrassed look of one who has accidentally trumped"
He might have said.

And rightly so.

Sunday 31 October 2010

Catchweasel

A little while back a charming young man came into the shop and bought these Lush designs vinyl graphics to decorate his shutters.


It transpired that he was not merely a customer, but a fellow traveller so to speak.
Richard Catchweasel (for it is he) designs and makes beautiful furniture.
His eccentric hand-made pieces are a delight.

Knowing my love of God's creatures Richard commissioned me to draw his rampant weasel logo for him.

Here it is on a gorgeous T shirt available from http://www.catchweasel.com/
Modelled here by my daughter, who is also modelling a plate of curry.



This may look like a sad puppy but in fact its a wonderfully clever table with an ingenious compartment for your journals.



I like to think that the object below could be described as a console - or even a credenza
(two of the best words in the English language).

I simply adore it.

Like the mongrel offspring of a school desk and a wizard.

He has promised to provide us with a piece that we can display in our new shop soon.


Richard also makes sideboards and the like that wouldn't confuse a those of more classical tastes. See more on his lovely website - http://www.catchweasel.com/

Thursday 28 October 2010

Eleonor Pritchard




Here at Cockpit Arts in Deptford you will find the studio of the disinguished artist-in-wool that is Eleanor pritchard. The subtle intricacy of her weavings are a marvel to behold. Who wouldn't want to own one of her blankets? A marriage of tradition and aesthetic intellect are manifest within her work.


Eleanor Pritchard's woven pieces work on domestic and a grand scale and she is rightly recognised as an important figure in this most subtle of media.


Known for her phlegmatic intelligence, Eleanor is the cool water that becalms the madness on the first floor at Cockpit Arts.



What is she planning here? Something complex I should imagine.


...and here is her husband, Peter Pritchard. He surely is an inspiration.

Monday 25 October 2010

In the NEW shop today:


Boyoboyoboy.
It was quiet in the shop today. Thats Mondays for you.

"Hey?" you cry "Whats with the negative vibes?"
Yes, its true to say one more often likes to big-up oneself and tootle one's own trumpet.
In an effort not to disappoint may I invite you to admire the cheery display on this elegant set of drawers.


Ben Nevis and its environs


This sort or avant-garde architecture is an inspiration to us at Lush designs. Why, I reckon this hobbledy house is more haunted still than the one we imagined in the picture below.



Never mind that man-made madness, see the magnificent marvels of mother-nature;
here is the mightiest mountain in the whole of the United Kingdom (as I like to call it)
We triumphed over its awesome perils on Saturday.

"I can't talk now, Mum. I'm busy walking backwards over a hideous precipice."

What you can't see in this photograph are the small children, nonogenarians and spaniel puppies that made it up to the summit too.

Thursday 21 October 2010

In Greenwich last week.


Lumme - look at this. See that pearly king and queen, they've even got their very own pearly taxi.

Look very closely at that taxi window - see "Princess Diane and PRINCESS MARIA"
I don't know who princess Diane is -
but princess Maria;
do you think they mean ...
ME?

Saturday 16 October 2010

Extra Curricular Activities

"What the jiggins is this?" you ask

"I don't know. They made me do it" I reply.


Thats what you get if you ask someone from Lush Designs to illustrate an article in an American magazine about investment.

Friday 15 October 2010

Not in the least bit Boaring


We went to a studio sale last night in a faraway place called Ladbroke Grove and met Joseph Paxton who is a talented London-based Welsh sculptor. Here he is looking suitably rugged-yet-sensitive as is the way of sculptors. We at Lush Designs are lurcher lovers - see how dogtastically Joe has captured the lurcher on his left.

As you can see here, he has something else in common with us here at Lush Designs

He too is a wild pig fan.



I think his pig is a bit wilder than ours though...





Also available as a tea towel, cushion, bag and bone china mug ...

Prét â Acheter


Well, the NEW Lush Designs shop at 8 College approach in Greenwich is up and running.

To tell you the truth we're absolutely ZORSTED. Not so much so that we can't sell you a satanic tea-towel.

This Hell's Kitchen tea towel would make an excellent halloween gift for a maiden aunt.

Friday 8 October 2010

Old shop - new shop

Here's our olde shoppe.

Mighty purty, huh?




And here's our NEW shop. Find us at 8 College approach, Greenwich as of next week.
These walls are painted a colour called "pigeon"; which is entirely appropriate given the prevalence locally of this avian vermin.

Needs a bit of work.

CUSHION PREVIEW

Is your bum tired of the same old cushion?
Is your settee too cornery?
Have you got a stain on your armchair?

Solve these and almost all other problems with a cat cushion.

Its generously proportioned and in a tasteful shade of blue-grey
Available from www.lushlampshades.co.uk from October 17th

Thursday 7 October 2010

Gay Paris - Maison & Objet

Was ever there anything so glamorous and elegant as Paris?

Why, here is one of us (Marie) at Maison et Objet,
Quel sophistication.


See the tasteful 'objets' she found within this fabulous emporium of commerce.
But once again, that pushy madam Helen Minns managed to out-do us. It was she who got in with the in-crowd and secured a private audience with this exciting snowman - we couldn't get a look-in.





Chic, non?

Monday 4 October 2010

Four of your five-a-day, vegetable napkins

Man, Its been LOOOONG since we blogged.
Thats the trouble with being busy and important.

Never mind - here's a lovely new Lush Designs product that would be a suitable accompaniment for any 'Master-Chef-The-Professionals' type meal, (they were cooking duck and cherries and REALLY nice-looking spuds tonight on BBC2)
Lovely cotton napkins!
Hey, these would even posh up Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie and processed peas.
Think what a lovely self-gifted Christmas present they would make. Available from www.lushlampshades.com later this month.

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Dungong

This noble creature features in The Intrepid Dumpling's Dugong Story in the Just When Stories.
See its sensitive countenance. Its alabaster smoothness. Its poignant flippers.
I'll admit its a fanciful interpretation in response to the story which features a Troll Queen amongst other characters.
What a terrible shame they're an endangered species.